SEC Files Emergency Motion Against Stanford Receiver

AP with CNBC staff

Friday, 31 Jul 2009 | 4:09 PM ETThe Associated Press

SHARES

The receiver appointed by the courts to take over the companies run by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford is meeting resistance in his efforts to recover money the government says went missing in a Ponzi scheme.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency motion that is scheduled to be heard in federal court Friday evening opposing Dallas lawyer Ralph Janvey's efforts to sue more than 600 investors for nearly $1 billion. The agency said Janvey's suit is supported by "neither logic nor the law."

The SEC says Janvey is targeting innocent investors who should not have to return the money they received from investing in certificates of deposit at a Stanford-run bank in Antigua.

Earlier Friday, CNBC learned that Stanford is replacing his current attorney, Dick Deguerin, with the law firm Patton Boggs. Robert Luskin will head the new team.

Stanford is being held in a Texas jail as he awaits trial. He pleaded not guilty to 21 criminal accounts related to the Ponzi scheme.